Update: 1 Dead, 2 Injured Before New Port Richey Standoff Began

Update: 9-Year-Old Dies Following Attack at New Port Richey Home

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A 24-year-old New Port Richey man faces a host of charges after Pasco County Sheriff’s deputies say he went on a rampage Thursday morning, killing his mother and seriously injuring two of his nieces.

Deputies received a call for help around 8:26 a.m. from a home at 4720 Catherine St., an email to media from the sheriff’s office stated. When they arrived, they found Angela Rios, 55, dead and two of her granddaughters, Jenica Randazzo, 9, and La’nyla Heater, 7, seriously injured.

According to deputies, Angela and Ernesto Rios live at the home with their son Jason and four grandchildren, two girls and two boys.

Ernesto Rios is said to have gotten up just before 8 a.m. and started getting his grandchildren ready for school. With the kids awake, Ernesto went to take a shower. While in the bathroom, Ernesto heard screams coming from inside his home, the email stated.

When Ernesto went to check on the noise, “he found his two granddaughters suffering from blunt force trauma injuries, while his wife, Angela Rios, was found inside the home unresponsive,” the email stated.

Angela died at the scene from her injuries, deputies say.

“Jason Rios, who attacked the two girls and his mother, was attempting to harm a third child when Ernesto Rios halted the assault and pushed his son from the house,” the email stated.

Jason, however, ran next door to an unoccupied home at 4712 Catherine St., sparking a SWAT call out and standoff.

Attempts were made to get Jason Rios to come out of the home, but they were unsuccessful, the sheriff’s office stated. The lack of cooperation forced SWAT to remove a portion of a wall and deploy gas into the home. A short time later, flash-bang devices were set off in the home.

Jason Rios stumbled out of the home at that point, deputies say, but refused to show them his hands. The standoff, however, ended without a shot fired when Rios stumbled and fell into a SWAT vehicle, knocking himself unconscious.

“Jason Rios was found to have self-inflected injuries to his neck from a long drill bit as well as two injures consistent with an auger drill bit to his head and torso,” the email stated.

Jason Rios was taken to a local hospital for treatment. He now faces a single count of murder and two counts of attempted murder, deputies noted.

Randazzo was in serious condition at a local hospital Thursday afternoon while Heater was in stable condition. The two boys in the home, Dominic Putnam, 13, and Chancellor Rios, 4, were uninjured.

All four children are under the care and custody of their grandparents, the sheriff’s office stated. The Pasco Sheriff’s Office Child Protective Investigative Unit did not have any cases regarding the children.

Photos courtesy of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office

Editor’s note: This story was updated Feb. 5 at 3:50 p.m. to include the latest information from the sheriff’s office.